When it comes to GAI tools, lawyers must know how to use them better than their clients
Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) is reshaping the legal profession, offering efficiency gains while redefining lawyers’ roles. The true potential of GAI lies not in automating existing tasks, but in reimagining legal practice – creating new opportunities for delivering value and solving complex legal challenges in ways previously unimaginable.
The role of law firms in a GAI-driven world
While GAI tools may reduce the necessity of large external law firms, they are unlikely to eliminate reliance on them. Companies depend on law firms for deep specialisation, expertise, and scalability – qualities in-house legal departments cannot easily replicate.
- Scalability: When businesses face sudden legal challenges (e.g., lawsuits, regulatory investigations), law firms provide rapid access to specialised resources.
- Strategic Advisory Role: Law firms don’t just provide legal services, they offer industry insights, precedent knowledge, and negotiation expertise beyond the technical application of law.
- GAI Mastery: To remain relevant, law firms must outperform their clients in leveraging GAI, mastering both its capabilities and limitations.
Even senior partners must adapt. GAI literacy is becoming essential for credibility in the profession as younger lawyers increasingly expect technology-driven innovation from their firms.
GAI and affordable legal services
Traditional legal consultations are often perceived as prohibitively expensive, with a lack of pricing transparency creating hesitation among individuals seeking legal help. This systemic issue limits access to justice and prevents many from obtaining necessary legal advice.
GAI-powered legal tools offer a cost-effective solution, reducing barriers while creating new legal work previously too expensive for individuals to afford. Rather than replacing lawyers, GAI expands access to legal services, making basic legal assistance more affordable and freeing up lawyers to focus on complex, high-value cases.
Legal technology is already enabling mass claims and collective legal actions that would have been unfeasible under traditional models:
- Flightright.com: A German platform that helps air passengers claim compensation, handling millions of cases and securing €500 million in claims. Without GAI, hiring individual lawyers for such claims would be too costly.
- Justice.cool: A French legal tech startup providing AI-driven tools to expand mass claims beyond flight compensation, making legal action accessible for small-scale disputes.
- Lawyer Joyce Pitcher’s Firm: A law office using AI-enhanced legal processes to manage up to 600 court hearings per month, handling thousands of individual joint actions efficiently.
The future of legal practice in a GAI-powered world
GAI’s ability to commoditise legal knowledge will democratise access to justice, ensuring more people can assert their legal rights. Lawyers who embrace AI innovations will be well-positioned to thrive in a future where technology and human expertise work together to enhance legal services rather than replace them.
“Lawyers must become proficient in GAI tools…they must embrace innovation, while preserving core human capabilities such as judgment and creativity. Ultimately, this offers an opportunity to enhance legal services rather than replace them.”
Will the future see more or fewer lawyers?
The number of lawyers in the future depends on regulation trends and technological adaptation.
- Regulation as an opportunity: Large firms thrive on regulatory complexity – new laws create demand for legal expertise. Given the continuous growth in regulation worldwide, the legal profession is unlikely to shrink. For instance, France enacted more than 1,000 new laws in the past 20 years, while the UK tax code has exceeded 10 million words.
- GAI as a necessary tool: As legal requirements become increasingly complex, GAI will be essential in helping lawyers navigate and master the inflation of regulations rather than replacing the profession entirely.
What aspects of the legal profession will remain unchanged?
Despite technological advancements, certain core aspects of law will always require human expertise, including:
- Empathy and emotional intelligence – Understanding client psychology and building trust remain inherently human.
- Collaboration and negotiation – Law often involves nuanced interpersonal dynamics that GAI cannot fully replicate.
- Strategic thinking and judgment – Legal reasoning integrates context, ethics, and political considerations beyond algorithmic analysis.
- Problem-solving and creativity – Lawyers devise novel solutions and craft arguments that go beyond predictable AI outputs.
As work requiring human interaction becomes more valuable, remote work in the legal industry may decline, as tasks that can be done remotely are often the easiest to automate.
What must lawyers do to remain relevant?
Lawyers must become proficient in GAI tools, ensuring they know how to use them better than their clients.
- GAI competency requirements: Bar associations are considering mandatory training in GAI, akin to existing KYC/AML requirements in other industries.
- Ethical responsibilities: In July 2024, the American Bar Association’s Formal Opinion 512 outlined ethical duties related to GAI, including technological competence, confidentiality, reasonable fees, and supervisory responsibilities.
- Pricing models must evolve: Traditional billable hours models will need to shift toward value-based pricing where the actual impact of legal work defines its worth rather than the time spent.
Ultimately, GAI offers an opportunity to enhance legal services rather than replace them. Lawyers must embrace innovation, while preserving core human capabilities such as judgment, creativity, and ethical reasoning to remain indispensable in an evolving industry.